Pope says how many members of clergy in Catholic Church are paedophiles

Posted: Monday, 14 July 2014 @ 14:45

Pope Francis has been quoted as saying "about 2%" of clergy (meaning deacons, priests, bishops etc) in the Catholic Church are paedophiles.

Some might be surprised that the figure is this low - but he also said that the abuse of children was like "leprosy" - no shit!

There are about 414,000 priests in total around the world making the 2% the Pope estimates as there being 8,000 paedophile priests.

Last year Pope Francis strengthened the Vatican's laws against child abuse and
earlier this month begged forgiveness from the victims of sexual abuse by
priests, at his first meeting with victims since his election.